


The Pilot

by QianLan



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Family, Gen, Rogue One Spoilers, Sacrifice, remembering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-10 15:25:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8922397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QianLan/pseuds/QianLan
Summary: Wedge Antilles needs to write this down, to tell the story, before they forget.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was a little something I posted on tumblr yesterday and thought I'd put up here as well.

 

Their names are said in reverence in the halls around base. 

“Cassian.”

“Jyn.”

“Baze”

“Chirrut.”

“The pilot.”

Wedge shakes his head. _His name was Bodhi Rook._

 

Wedge has asked around, checked, made sure—the man had only been with the Rebellion a scant few days before Scarif, after all.   _Heck, so had Baze Malbus and Chirrut Imwe_ , Wedge figures, _but everyone seems to know their names_.

He wants to be mad, livid that this hero is reduced to an anonymous position, but there is power in being _The Pilot_ , Wedge realizes. It is almost like a reverent title: _The Pilot._

And the other pilots, they know his name, keep it close in that litany of the fallen—those names you repeat to yourself in those moments when you start to question why you are doing this, why you are going up against the Empire, why you are willing to put your life on the line yet again.

Bodhi Rook becomes one more reason.   _We do it for him.  We fly out there into the blackness for him.  And for all of the other pilots.  The ones the rest of the Rebellion has already forgotten._

_They are our family._

_They give us  hope._

_So let the others call him The Pilot.  We remember.  We know his name._

And when the pilots take it upon themselves to create a new squadron and name it Rogue, well, they all know who that is for, too.

 

Years later, though, as Wedge sits at a console and types out this thing—this thing that he needs to get into words, this thing that he needs other people to know—he pauses.   _Rogue Squadron.  For The Pilot._

_But also for the Daughter._

_And the Spy._

_And the Believer._

_And the Protector._

_Because_ , Wedge remembers _, it isn’t just for Bodhi Rook, is it?_

_Heck, it isn’t even just for them._

They weren’t the only sacrifices on Scarif.  And Scarif wasn’t the only battle in the war.

Wedge fights back his tears and keeps writing.

Some names are easy to remember.   _Luke Skywalker.  Han Solo._

Others fall away.   _Does anyone even remember his name anymore_ , Wedge thinks, and then realizes he could be talking about Bodhi or Biggs or…any number of people.

 

The Battle of Endor was years ago—supposedly there is peace in the galaxy now.  And yet, Wedge furiously writes.   _So many people have forgotten_. Not just the sacrifices of those little no-name people like Porkins, but the bigger things.

What it was like to have Stormtroopers roaming the streets, Imperial ships looming overhead.

The screams.  The fire.  Explosions rocking the soil you stood on.

The people who were willing to risk everything to stop the evil that seeped through the galaxy.

Wedge has heard rumors, knows that soon, people are going to need to remember these things again. They’re going to need to remember other things as well.

To remember the children, who watch as their parents are taken from them.

To remember those who never lose their faith, no matter how horrible the circumstances.

To remember those who are frightened, but who fight anyway.

To remember those who do terrible things in the name of freedom, because that is the dirty little secret of war—both sides get their hands bloody—and the Rebellion was never as neat and tidy as it wanted to pretend it was.

_That’s important_ , Wedge thinks.   _That’s something we need to remember too._

_Oh, and we also need to remember those who realize they are on the wrong side.  Those who are looking for a second chance._

_Like Bodhi Rook._

_Like me_ , Wedge thinks.   _Rogue Three._

Over the years, it was easy to forget the numerous defectors who quietly made their way over to the Rebellion.  Heck, all but a few of the really old-timers never knew that Wedge himself had been a defector.   _And a pilot_ , he grinned.

_But never The Pilot._

_It’s a story that needs to be told_ , he thinks, furiously typing.  The Pilot. The others.  

_If there is a new evil rising in the galaxy_ , Wedge thinks, _those who resist it aren’t the only ones who need hope_.  Those kids training in TIEs, the ones who line up in perfect formation as Stormtroopers, the ones who never had much of a choice in life, even the ones who deliberately chose the side of evil but then had second thoughts—they need hope too.

And that hope starts with a story.

_There once was a man named Bodhi Rook,_ Wedge types _.  We called him The Pilot…_

 

Years later, when the man who had been known as FN-2187 goes to the Resistance archives and types in a search for defectors, he doesn’t know what to expect.  Is he the first?  If there are others, how were they treated?  Why did they come?

The writings of Wedge Antilles will pop up.  This man will sit down to read them.  Hours later, he will rise, tears in his eyes.  He hadn’t known what he was looking for, but it was this. _  
_

_The Pilot.  No,_ he thinks, _the Pilots._

He’s never had a family that he can remember, but now?  Now, he knows their names.

_There once was a pilot named Bodhi Rook, and there once was a pilot named Wedge Antilles, too.  And they were both scared, but they both made a choice…_

_There were others._

_I’m not alone._

_They are my family._

_They give me hope._

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on tumblr where I'm [cha-llamala.](https://cha-llamala.tumblr.com/)


End file.
